"I want to make sure you know: Junior Seau loved you guys, loved you all," Billy Ray Smith, a former Chargers linebacker and teammate of Seau's, told the crowd.

Seau, 43, was found dead in his beachfront home in Oceanside last week.

San Diego County's medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot.

Earlier Friday, Seau was buried in Oceanside.

Fouts called Seau's suicide a tragedy that must inspire others to take action.

"The lesson here is, if you need help, get help," said Fouts, a six-time Pro Bowler at quarterback. "It's out there. All you have to do is swallow your pride and ask for it.

"We must do a better job of sharing feelings. Help is out there for all of us."

Ross, ticking off charitable works by his former middle linebacker, said he doubts any one NFL player has done more for his city than Seau has done for San Diego. The coach of the only Chargers team to reach the Super Bowl— the same year, 1994, that Seau won the NFL's Man of the Year award — Ross said one word best described Seau.

"Passion," said the 75-year-old former coach, who wore a white Chargers cap. "For life. For football. For family. For Chargers. For the people of San Diego. And people in general. Always positive. Always upbeat.

"Always a smile. I'll never forget that smile, always, always."

Tomlinson recalled Seau as a "superstar" whose advice he sought on matters both professional and personal, such as when the running back asked where in San Diego he should propose to his girfriend.

Tomlinson said. "She's still with me because I followed Junior's word."

Tomlinson said it was Seau who showed him how to pursue charitable causes. "To this day, I'm still doing the same thing because of him," he said.

Addressing Seau's parents, Tomlinson told them to take a bow. Addressing Seau's four children, he told them to make their father proud. To the entire Seau family he said: "Don't be sad today. Be happy because Junior lives through us. Everybody in here, he lives through us."

When Fouts first met Seau in 1989, the Chargers quarterback asked the Oceanside High senior how his name was pronounced.

"It's Say-Ow because when I tackle someone, they say, 'Ow!' " Fouts said Seau told him. "And then Junior smiled. Ah, what a smile, ever present, and a lasting image, that smile is."

Fouts described Seau as the ultimate leader, the ultimate teammate.

"Boy could we have ever used him with our offense of Air Coryell," he said.

Seau's sense of humor and disdain for the Oakland Raiders merged into one memorable incident that Ross recalled.

"When we played the Raiders, they always had the fans very close to the field," he said. "They had this one guy who had put on shoulder pads, helmet. We get into the pregame warmup and Stan Humphries is doing nothing but throwing long balls. I'm saying, 'Stan what the hell's going on?' Stan said, 'Junior told me if I could hit that guy in the stands, he'd give me $1,000.' "

Four adults, all of them San Diego natives wearing Chargers jerseys, sipped beverages as they stood outside a small car they'd crowded into along with a 13-year-old boy in their group. They brought two handmade signs, one with Samoan writing on top of a blue-and-gold lightning bolt.

"It means, 'We all love you,' " said Joe Paniagua.

Paniagua and his friend Frankie Jardim said they came to honor the "best inside linebacker ever" in Seau.

"And you can tell that to Ray Lewis," said another member of the group, Mary Aquiningoc.

Andrea Ordonez and Aquiningoc said Seau's charitable work also brought them to the old football stadium on a May afternoon. "He did so much for the kids in the community," Aquinigoc said. "He just did it out of the kindness of his heart. It is a sad day. But we're going to heal and move on."

At the stadium turnstiles, football players wearing the jerseys of Oceanside High handed out brochures titled, "A Celebration of Life for Junior Seau."

The stadium field was bereft of its customary markings, making the grass pitch appear larger.

The only two markings on the grass were two white numbers, 55, etched in blue and gold paint.

"In this town, the name Seau is royalty," said Pastor Miles McPherson, a former Chargers defensive back who earlier in the day officiated Seau's funeral service.

"This is not a sporting event," McPherson said. "It's an event for us to heal and to celebrate the life of Junior Seau."